Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comLONDON, July 1 (Reuters - Cryptocurrency companies will need a licence and customer safeguards to issue and sell digital tokens in the European Union under groundbreaking new rules agreed by the bloc to tame a volatile "Wild West" market.Globally, crypto assets are largely unregulated, with national operators in the EU only required to show controls for combating money laundering.Representatives from the European Parliament and EU states thrashed out a deal late on Thursday on its Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) law.Register now for FREE...…Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comLONDON, July 1 (Reuters - Cryptocurrency companies will need a licence and customer safeguards to issue and sell digital tokens in the European Union under groundbreaking new rules agreed by the bloc to tame a volatile "Wild West" market.Globally, crypto assets are largely unregulated, with national operators in the EU only required to show controls for combating money laundering.Representatives from the European Parliament and EU states thrashed out a deal late on Thursday on its Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) law.Register now for FREE...WW…

By LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union agreed a new post-Brexit financial services pact on Friday that will allow them to co-operate on regulation but does little to improve the City of London’s access to the bloc.Britain’s finance ministry said the two sides have agreed terms on a “Memorandum of Understanding” that will set the conditions for how regulators from the EU and Britain share information.However, Brussels has said the MoU will not automatically lead to Britain’s large financial industry being able to sell a wide range of products and services to EU clients...…By LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union agreed a new post-Brexit financial services pact on Friday that will allow them to co-operate on regulation but does little to improve the City of London’s access to the bloc.Britain’s finance ministry said the two sides have agreed terms on a “Memorandum of Understanding” that will set the conditions for how regulators from the EU and Britain share information.However, Brussels has said the MoU will not automatically lead to Britain’s large financial industry being able to sell a wide range of products and services to EU clients...WW…

By LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will modernise its listing rules to attract more high-growth and “blank cheque” SPAC company flotations to London, Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said after a government-backed review said the capital was on the back foot after Brexit.The London Stock Exchange is facing tougher competition from NYSE and Nasdaq in New York, and from Euronext in Amsterdam since Britain fully left the European Union on Dec. 31.In a bid to keep London globally competitive after Brexit, Sunak commissioned a review of listings rules last November. It was led by former European...…By LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will modernise its listing rules to attract more high-growth and “blank cheque” SPAC company flotations to London, Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said after a government-backed review said the capital was on the back foot after Brexit.The London Stock Exchange is facing tougher competition from NYSE and Nasdaq in New York, and from Euronext in Amsterdam since Britain fully left the European Union on Dec. 31.In a bid to keep London globally competitive after Brexit, Sunak commissioned a review of listings rules last November. It was led by former European...WW…

By , , , AMSTERDAM/LONDON (Reuters) - All the talk was of Frankfurt or Paris luring London’s financial business as Britain peeled away from the EU. Yet it is Amsterdam that is proving the most visible early winner.Data last week showed the Dutch capital had displaced London as Europe’s biggest share trading centre in January, grabbing a fifth of the 40 billion euros-a-day action, up from below a tenth of trading pre-Brexit.Yet that is just one of several areas the city has quietly stolen a march on its rivals as it attracts businesses from Britain, evoking memories of its history as a...…By , , , AMSTERDAM/LONDON (Reuters) - All the talk was of Frankfurt or Paris luring London’s financial business as Britain peeled away from the EU. Yet it is Amsterdam that is proving the most visible early winner.Data last week showed the Dutch capital had displaced London as Europe’s biggest share trading centre in January, grabbing a fifth of the 40 billion euros-a-day action, up from below a tenth of trading pre-Brexit.Yet that is just one of several areas the city has quietly stolen a march on its rivals as it attracts businesses from Britain, evoking memories of its history as a...WW…

By LONDON (Reuters) - Luxembourg’s investment fund industry is a financial “black box” that helps people launder illicit money and avoid tax, according to an investigation published on Monday whose findings were rejected by the EU nation.The OpenLux investigation by journalists from a group of media organisations, including Le Monde, Le Soir, the Miami Herald and Sueddeutsche Zeitung, sifted through four million documents and records on 260,000 companies linked to Luxembourg’s 4.5 trillion euro ($5.4 trillion) investment funds sector between 1955 and 2020.Under Luxembourg law, investment...…By LONDON (Reuters) - Luxembourg’s investment fund industry is a financial “black box” that helps people launder illicit money and avoid tax, according to an investigation published on Monday whose findings were rejected by the EU nation.The OpenLux investigation by journalists from a group of media organisations, including Le Monde, Le Soir, the Miami Herald and Sueddeutsche Zeitung, sifted through four million documents and records on 260,000 companies linked to Luxembourg’s 4.5 trillion euro ($5.4 trillion) investment funds sector between 1955 and 2020.Under Luxembourg law, investment...WW…

By LONDON (Reuters) - An EU forum for discussing financial services with Britain will be similar to what the United States has, and it must be in place before market access will be considered, the bloc’s financial services chief said on Monday.Britain’s Brexit trade deal with the EU from Jan. 1 does not cover financial services, leaving its City of London financial center largely cut off from the EU.Both sides are committed to creating a forum for financial regulatory cooperation by March, but talks have not started yet, the EU financial services commissioner told the European...…By LONDON (Reuters) - An EU forum for discussing financial services with Britain will be similar to what the United States has, and it must be in place before market access will be considered, the bloc’s financial services chief said on Monday.Britain’s Brexit trade deal with the EU from Jan. 1 does not cover financial services, leaving its City of London financial center largely cut off from the EU.Both sides are committed to creating a forum for financial regulatory cooperation by March, but talks have not started yet, the EU financial services commissioner told the European...WW…

By , LONDON (Reuters) - The City of London on Thursday approved the removal from its ceremonial Guildhall home of statues of two figures that symbolise the financial sector’s historic role in slavery.Slideshow The move, voted through by the City’s elected representatives, is part of a wider debate over how Britain remembers and represents its history, sparked by the spontaneous toppling of a slave trader’s statue in the city of Bristol during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.Following those protests, the corporation that runs the Square Mile financial district set up a task force on...…By , LONDON (Reuters) - The City of London on Thursday approved the removal from its ceremonial Guildhall home of statues of two figures that symbolise the financial sector’s historic role in slavery.Slideshow The move, voted through by the City’s elected representatives, is part of a wider debate over how Britain remembers and represents its history, sparked by the spontaneous toppling of a slave trader’s statue in the city of Bristol during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.Following those protests, the corporation that runs the Square Mile financial district set up a task force on...WW…

By , LONDON (Reuters) - Europe will see its biggest transfer of share trading in more than two decades when stock exchanges open for business in 2021, with Brexit shifting its centre of gravity away from London.While market players hope that years of preparations since Britain voted to leave the European Union means the transition of most euro-denominated assets like shares and derivatives out of the country will be relatively smooth, the long-term impact is unclear.“This is a big bang event and that is one of the things that the market hasn’t truly understood yet,” Alasdair Haynes, chief...…By , LONDON (Reuters) - Europe will see its biggest transfer of share trading in more than two decades when stock exchanges open for business in 2021, with Brexit shifting its centre of gravity away from London.While market players hope that years of preparations since Britain voted to leave the European Union means the transition of most euro-denominated assets like shares and derivatives out of the country will be relatively smooth, the long-term impact is unclear.“This is a big bang event and that is one of the things that the market hasn’t truly understood yet,” Alasdair Haynes, chief...WW…

By , BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union is investigating Germany’s financial regulator over the collapse of payments company Wirecard in a rare move that heaps embarrassment on Berlin days before it is due to take over the EU’s rotating presidency.Wirecard’s implosion on Thursday, owing creditors almost $4 billion, is shaping up to be one of Germany’s biggest corporate scandals, and regulator BaFin has come under fire at home and abroad for not spotting problems sooner.The European Commission has asked the EU’s markets watchdog to assess if BaFin’s responses to allegations of...…By , BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union is investigating Germany’s financial regulator over the collapse of payments company Wirecard in a rare move that heaps embarrassment on Berlin days before it is due to take over the EU’s rotating presidency.Wirecard’s implosion on Thursday, owing creditors almost $4 billion, is shaping up to be one of Germany’s biggest corporate scandals, and regulator BaFin has come under fire at home and abroad for not spotting problems sooner.The European Commission has asked the EU’s markets watchdog to assess if BaFin’s responses to allegations of...WW…